This new beef boom is a major
threat to this climate-critical forest and carbon sink. As companies and
investors look to exploit land for profit, not only are tropical trees which
have stood for centuries destroyed, but homes and livelihoods of indigenous
communities and land and environmental defenders damaged.

Just a few weeks ago, I
visited the Amazonian state of Pará, in Brazil, where I witnessed first-hand
how companies could be doing more to curb deforestation, as they drive to make
profit at any cost.

This includes major beef
traders like JBS S.A., Marfrig Global Foods and Minerva Foods, who account
for more than 45% of the Brazilian
Amazon’s cattle-slaughtering capacity.

All three have committed to
measures that should help protect the forest. Yet their supply chain is tainted
by deforestation, repeatedly exposed by Brazilian civil society, and now
confirmed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

This is a shocking revelation:
that much of the beef exported out of Brazil or traded within it carries the
real risk of Amazon destruction and environmental harm.

In September, 244 other
investors signed a statement
calling on firms to protect the Amazon. Interestingly, these investors may soon
face their first test – as the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) looks ready
to sell a significant part of its shares in both JBS and Marfrig.

At this key moment in which financiers
have the power to influence the activities of these companies so heavily linked
to rampant deforestation, Global Witness needs your support.

We’re working hard to follow
the money behind the climate crisis – and we need your help to hold financiers
and the governments that regulate them to account.